You are invited to follow the developing life of Baby Boardy as the BB ventures from life in the amniotic swamp to the bright city lights of Melbourne.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

"Look at the stars... look how they shine for you... and everything you do..."

Everything seemed to be going quite well, although poor little Genevieve was starting to turn somewhat yellow. As is (incredibly) common, she was slightly jaundiced. This tends to fix itself once they are feeding well and getting lots of fluids (read... milk) through them, so the kidneys can do their job.

But Nai's milk was taking a little time to come in. It can be anywhere from 2-3 days all the way to 5-6, and if you have a caesarian, it generally is on the higher end of this scale.

So Genevieve was the not-so-willing recipient of another heel prick. This time, they had to fill a little vial with her precious blood. Now I'm not being all paternally protective there... but I'm just suggesting that it must have been quite valuable as she was holding onto it as best she could. Lets just say that she definitely isn't a haemophilliac, as it took quite a lot of squeezing (with Mum and Dad looking on with tears in our eyes) to fill that small vial.

The test results came back that she was thankfully below the threshold for putting her under the UV lights in a humidicrib (one of the ways they treat jaundice). Pretty cool how they do that these days, as the kid gets these cool little towelette sunglasses to wear - complete with printed 'Rayban Wayfarer' style shades on them. Yep... they're a 3 day old Blues Brother.So, instead, we gave her extra fluids. This was formula, but in little pre-mixed bottles. No waiting until she's 15 to get stuck into the ready-to-drink vodka UDL croozers, she was onto the hard stuff, ready-to-drink NAN!

So how do you administer it? Well, one preferred method for non-bottle-fed kids is for them to suck a finger and to slowly syringe in the required amount. This also makes it easy to measure what they take. So, while Genevieve sucked her Daddy's pinky, Mummy slowly squirted in the pseudomilk.

Now I've gotta tell you, as a bloke, this was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. I can start to understand how breastfeeding must be such an incredible bonding experience. As Genevieve slowly sucked my fingernail loose from its mooring (not really, but it sure felt like it), I think that's about 10% of the feeling that Nai must get while feeding her. I know my pinky wasn't providing the sustanance, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless.